Husband Heard Telling Wife to Shoot Burglar on 911 Call

LOGANVILLE, Ga. -- On Tuesday, Walton County released the 911 calls made as Paul Slater allegedly broke into a home on Henderson Ridge Drive, hunting down the woman and her two children inside.

Investigators believe he originally intended to rob the homeowners, but for some reason shifted his focus to finding Melinda Herman and her twin 9-year old children hiding in a crawl space upstairs.

"At some point he must have seen one of the kids go upstairs or heard them because he went upstairs, pried open the bedroom door, the bathroom door, back bathroom door and then pulled open the crawl space to get to them," said Cpt. Greg Hall with the Walton County Sheriff's Office.

When Slater opened that last door, he was confronted with six bullets fired from a .38 handgun. Five hit their mark, giving the Hermans a chance to escape.

Melinda called her husband while the family was in hiding and he in turn called police. In the 911 tape he tells his wife, "Melinda, if he opens that door you shoot, you shoot him. You understand?"

The call between Donnie and his wife then goes silent. It will be seven long agonizing minutes before dispatchers tell Donnie his wife and children are okay.

Slater made it out of the house as well, but was found nearby on Jakes Cove, with his car on the side of the road. The police report says Slater was on the ground bleeding from the face and body.

The family declined to talk about the 911 call or what happened , but Cpt. Hall says they're clearly still shaken.

"Just like I told her that night, there's right and there's wrong and then there's not natural. And it's not natural to have to shoot someone. So it's going to bother you and if it doesn't bother you at some point in your life, there's something wrong." said Hall.

Slater remains on a ventilator in intensive care at Gwinnett Medical Center.